LifeDeath wrote:Is it theoretically possible that we use "can" in its positive form with the perfect? What would it mean to you semantically? (I doubt if I can use this word when referring to a grammatical tense but not to a sentential element, like a word or compound.)
You can theoretically, but the epistemic meaning implied in the negative is replaced by the "be able to" meaning. As a result, it sounds as though the subject of "can" is able to change their past actions. Essentially, you've found one of English's time travel tenses.
LifeDeath wrote:I've noticed that sometimes in English adjectives are formed by connecting a few words together. I was trying to make an adjective for describing a person who is looking for love or a love partner. I got "love-seeking person" and "love-searching person". At least these two seemed to me most natural of what was coming to my mind. What adjective would you invent?
Like: "I know he's a love-seeking person, but it'd be better if he was trying to find someone on appropriate websites
rather than here on a travel topic."
I think there're simple adjectives for what I mean. But forming one with a participle makes it sound more processive like a process (?) / active (?) and thus more expressive, I guess.
The first thing coming to my mind is a verbal construction: "I know he's looking for love." Describing someone with a noun or adjective generally represents a persistent state, while a verb often allows the possibility of change. If you want the "persistent state" implication, you could use "a person looking for love", "the sort of person who looks for love", maybe even "a love seeker".